Question: If an employee commits sexual harassment at work, does the employer have the right to fire that employee?
The Law Department - ACDC advises:
Under Clause 2, Article 125 Labour Code 2019 on applying dismissal as a disciplinary measure, the employer shall apply the dismissal discipline in the following cases:
“2. The employee discloses technological or business secrets or infringes the intellectual property rights of the employer, or commits an act of serious harm or threatens to commit an act of serious harm to the assets or interests of the employer, or commits sexual harassment at the workplace as defined in the internal work regulations;.”
Clause 1, Article 85 Decree 145/2020/NĐ-CP elaborates on some articles of the Labour Code on working conditions and labour relations.
Article 85. Employer’s regulations on preventing and combating sexual harassment in the workplace
1. The employer’s regulations on preventing and combating sexual harassment shall be included in the labour regulations or issued as an appendix to the labour regulations and have the following primary contents:
- Strictly prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace;
- Detailed and specific descriptions of that are considered sexual harassment in the workplace according to the characteristics of the work and the workplace;
- Responsibility, deadline, and procedures for responding to sexual harassment in the workplace, including those for filing and settling complaints and accusations, and relevant regulations;
- Disciplinary actions against perpetrators of sexual harassment and false accusations, which depend on the nature and seriousness of the offence;
đ) Compensation for victims and remedial measures.
Thus, an employee who commits sexual harassment at the workplace may be dismissed if the internal labour regulations apply the dismissal discipline to the employee who has committed sexual harassment.
